Climbing out of a Hole ( $GOOGL $NFLX $BIDU $AMZN $LNKD )

So I thought I knew what it meant to climb out of a trading hole but today proved to be the real test. In a normal trading setup, I would have level 2 data up on all of my trading windows. This is especially true for options because I need to know the spread. Since I’m on this sim account, the data is delayed but the time and sales is up to date… that is what I have come to rely on. What I failed to account for today is with Google’s earnings coming up soon the spread will widen exponentially. I had an opening range breakout and as soon as I was in I knew something was wrong. Prints were very scarce and very far apart. I logged into my brokerage and looked at the level 1 data and saw it was a 50c spread… so what i essentially did was put myself at -500$ the minute I entered. I tried to limit out but that’s never an easy thing on the sim either. I’m not here to blame the simulator but I can tell you that things behave drastically different in real world application. Long story short, I took a bath and started the day -1300$.

Previously, losing the first trade of the day set me up for disappointment since my confidence would be shattered that fast. Today was different. I went to the kitchen, grabbed some water and a coffee, and shook it off… determined to be on watch for any good trades. Funny thing is, I wasn’t on tilt like my first losing day where I kept forcing trades. I stayed level and guess what happened? I found good trades. I even found some great trades. I would have been on the path to my greatest day of gains to date had I not experienced that initial lost. After all was said and done with, I ended the day +83$. A trade like that I will never allow to happen again. It’s not very fun starting your day in the hole.

Trades for the day: